Justin McGuirk on design + Ethical and green living | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/series/justin-mcguirk-design+environment/ethical-living
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Sustainable design is wearing thin | Justin McGuirkhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/feb/03/justin-mcguirk-sustainable-design
Sustainability – all matronly browns and little green arrows – has drained the sexiness from design. If designers want to do some genuine good, it's time to re-engineer their thinking<p>Whenever I think of sustainable design, I think of the opening sentence of Victor Papanek's book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Real-World-Ecology-Social/dp/0500273588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1296578492&amp;sr=1-1]" title="Design for the Real World">Design for the Real World</a>. It goes: "There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few of them." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Papanekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Papanek" title="Papanek">Papanek</a>, a designer himself, went on to call designers "dangerous", the producers of "garbage". And that was in 1972.</p><p>These days, designers have a rather different role as societal problem-solvers, leading the way to a cleaner, better future. But I suspect Papanek is still right. Notwithstanding this new conscientious breed, there is no getting over the fact that the majority of product designers earn their living supplying growth-dependent economies with novelties for our ever-more-insatiable appetites. Increasingly, many of those objects are being presented as sustainable. Perhaps packaged in brown cardboard with little green arrows on it.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/feb/03/justin-mcguirk-sustainable-design">Continue reading...</a>DesignArt and designCultureEthical and green livingEnvironmentGreen buildingRecyclingThu, 03 Feb 2011 16:56:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/feb/03/justin-mcguirk-sustainable-designPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesBin around ... the unsexy world of sustainability needs a shot in the arm. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesBin around ... the unsexy world of sustainability needs a shot in the arm. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesJustin McGuirk2011-02-03T16:56:09Z